Kuahel watched Maxi pick her way down before continuing. She could not help but marvel at his nimble footwork. While she was slowly becoming a snowman from her numerous tumbles in the snow, the paladin was surprisingly well-kempt. They pushed forward with their descent until they came across a towering rock face blocking their path.
“Could you use your tracing spell here?” said Kuahel, turning to her.
Gasping for air, Maxi nodded slowly. She touched the ground and infused her mana into it to get a rough estimate of their location.
“I think we are… on the opposite side of the mountain we were investigating yesterday.”
“Can you locate the others?”
She considered it, then shook her head. “I would have to… weave a very tight net. Such a vast area would require an immense amount of mana.”
“Then, we can only hope they will be able to find us,” Kuahel muttered with a sigh before moving along the rock face.
Maxi followed in silence, her pride slightly wounded. Ruth was with the others; he would no doubt be able to locate them without much trouble. After all, wind-based search magic was much more efficient at pinpointing specific targets.
As she trudged through the snow, she prayed with all her heart for Ruth to find them as quickly as possible.
Just then, Kuahel drew his sword. “Monster up ahead. Be prepared to cast a barrier.’
Maxi kept her eyes on the jagged boulder along the path as she hastily gathered her mana. She was summoning a barrier when a head rose from behind the boulder’s crest.
She froze. Throughout the years, she had seen her share of frightening things. None compared to the ghastly sight before her. She stared up at the ghoulish ogre in horror.
Dark red blood dripped from the monster’s face. Clenched between its thick lips was a disembodied green arm, and the limp corpse of a goblin hung from its stubby hand. The ogre sucked the arm into its mouth, swallowing it whole.
When Maxi grimaced and stepped back, the action seemed to provoke the giant creature. Until now, it had only been staring down at them absentmindedly. It flung the carcass in its hand and reached for her. In nearly the same breath, Kuahel threw his hook and chain, which whipped around the ogre’s arm. With a single yank, the nearly sixteen-kevette (approximately 14.8 meters) giant helplessly tipped on its side. A blue flash pierced the air, lopping off the monster’s arm.
Maxi shrieked as blood sprayed around them. The ogre gripped the gaping wound at its side and let out a terrifying roar.
Kuahel repositioned his dripping sword and muttered irritably, “Should have gone for the head first.”
There was not a shred of panic in his voice. He retrieved his chain from the amputated arm and flung it at the charging creature. The steel chain coiled itself around the ogre’s leg and sent it lurching backward. Maxi could only watch with her mouth agape. It was hard to believe this man was handling a house-sized monster as though it were no bigger than a child.
As Maxi stood stunned, something caught her eye. She tensed and squinted into the distance. A goblin was watching Kuahel and the ogre from a crevice in the rock face.
She immediately grasped the situation. Some of the goblins had managed to survive the ogre attack. The goblin slunk further into the crevice, and Maxi hastily gave chase. If they let this creature get away, it would alert the monsters of their investigation.
The goblin uttered a strange sound as an earth wall shot up to block its path. Its gleaming eyes glanced around until they landed on her. A heartbeat later, it charged. Maxi summoned a fist-sized fireball on the goblin’s head, causing it to screech and fling its ax aside to swat its face.
“I can’t say I approve,” Kuahel said with a scowl, evidently unhappy with the idea of them providing food for a monster.
“We don’t exactly have the luxury of choice,” Ruth said with a snort. “You should be grateful we were able to find a worm in an area that has next to no large monsters.”
Kuahel’s eyebrow arched at Ruth’s insolence, but in the end, he nodded in resignation. “Let us get on with it, then.”
He squinted back along the path they had come.
‘We might have made too much noise. We should make haste, or we’ll have monsters on our tail.”
They departed at once. Even though Maxi felt worn to the bone, she did not ask to rest. She summoned all the energy she could muster to keep up with the knights. Monsters of the Ayin race were intelligent, and it was a real possibility that they might sense something amiss and give chase.
“We cannot continue with the investigation,” Elliot said once they were a safe distance away from the remains of the monster attack. “We must stop and return to the agreed meeting place.”
This time, even Kuahel did not object. Opening a map, he meticulously marked something on it and nodded. “1 would have liked to explore the north as well…
but that will prove difficult.”
Intense relief washed over Maxi. She had feared that the ruthless cleric would press them to keep going. The group found a cave to shelter for the night, then promptly set out again the next day. They were headed to the cave where they had hidden the wagon and horses.
Maxi’s fatigue had accumulated over days of trekking up and down the mountains in extreme conditions with only the bare minimum of sustenance. However, the prospect of reuniting with Riftan had her moving with renewed vigor. After traveling for over a day, the group arrived at the meeting point a half day earlier.
“Max! You made it back!”
Nevin rushed over to greet them as they trudged into the cave, a bright smile lighting his round face. Maxi dropped her bag to the ground and plopped down next to it.
“I was at my wit’s end waiting for you to return,” Nevin said, ushering her upright and making her sit by the fire.
“I realized I made a mistake — waiting here with these gloomy men in idle silence was far more harrowing. Honestly, I found myself talking to the horses!”
Lacking the energy to respond, Maxi simply bobbed her head. Her teeth chattered from the cold, and her limbs were as rigid as iron. She must have made quite the pitiful figure as Nevin clicked his tongue and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders. After a few minutes, she found the strength to speak
“A-Are the others back?”
Nevin was hovering near the entrance by that point. His eyes widened at her question. “Did they not come back with you?’
“We decided to split up,” Kuahel replied, pensively staring out of the cave entrance. “We agreed to meet back here in five days, but it appears they have yet to return.”
A strange sense of dread crept over Maxi.
Did something happen to them
